WEBVTT - Making Tech Accessible 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.760 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.520 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.759 how stuff Works, and I love all things tech. And 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:24.000 one of my favorite things about technology is how we 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.640 can provide people with capabilities they otherwise might not possess 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.880 or might not be able to tap into. For all 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.480 walks of life. It can open up access to incredible 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.120 volumes of knowledge and expertise. It can boost our ability 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.279 to do everything from travel faster to figuring out what 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.199 book we should read next. And it can enhance the 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:51.200 lives of people who live with injuries, disabilities, or other 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.880 factors that make our world a little more challenging to 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.320 navigate for them than for other people. Which brings us 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.760 to today's topic, which is a request from tech stuff. 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.560 Listener can can ask me this quite some time ago, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.200 so I apologize for how long it's taken me to 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.679 get to this. But Ken wanted to know about the development, design, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.720 and deployment of accessible technology. That is, technology meant to 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:21.880 provide accessibility to people who might otherwise have a challenge 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.800 accessing that technology. They might have a visual impairment or 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:30.240 hearing impairment, or health condition or injury that prevents them 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.440 from accessing technology the way other people do. So this 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.880 episode is all about making tech accessible, and this is 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:42.520 just an overview because accessible tech covers an enormous spectrum 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.800 of approaches and technologies. So I may go into further 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.040 detail on some of these in future episodes, but this 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:53.840 is kind of a very high level look at the 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.880 the whole idea of accessible technology, with just a few 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.840 examples thrown in. So I want to stress that this 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.680 is something that can be really difficult to do well. 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.080 And part of that is just because the designers and 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.680 engineers who are responsible for making the hardware and software 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.440 that we rely upon might not have the same challenges 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.000 as some of the people who will be using that 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.959 technology do, and so those designers and engineers might make 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.720 assumptions about how that tech needs to be used, and 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:31.760 sometimes those assumptions can exclude people who have these problems, 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:36.160 these issues, these disabilities, these challenges. I don't want to 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.600 classify everything as a problem. I'm just saying, you know, 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:44.799 people who are incapable of accessing the technology the way 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.560 everyone else tends to do. The intent these designers might 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.760 have is to help, and even if they're trying to 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.480 design assistive technology specifically for that purpose, the execution can 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.160 sometimes be clunky or inelegant, or it fails to make 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.160 the technology more accessible at all. I think it's of 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.160 critical importance that designers work with people whose life experience 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:15.079 mirrors that of those who actually uh do have those challenges, right, So, 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.800 if you're trying to design accessibility technology to help with 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.080 people who have visual impairments, it's important to have people 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.359 working with you on the development who also have those 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.280 visual impairments to give you real time feedback on designs 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.799 to make sure that the technology you're creating actually does 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.360 what was intended. So in the United States, there are 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.400 no laws that mandate accessibility with tech hardware. In general, 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:45.000 no company is legally required to make certain the technology 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.720 it creates is accessible to those who are differently abled, 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.200 and there's a lack of standards and expertise in the 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:56.360 field in general, a lack of awareness and education in 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:00.000 the field, and that complicates matters. It is a little 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.160 different if you happen to work for the federal government 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:08.200 in the United States, there there is a legal basis 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.120 for accessibility, but only if you're working for the federal government. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.520 Section five oh eight Standards for Electronic and Information Technology 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:22.960 states that quote, when federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:28.279 use electronic and information technology, federal employees with disabilities have 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.520 access to and use of information and data that is 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.400 comparable to the access and use by federal employees who 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:41.120 are not individuals with disabilities, unless and undoe burden would 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.080 be imposed on the agency end quote. So it's saying, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:50.719 anytime you're going to be uh incorporating technology into a 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:55.680 federal agency, there must be consideration put toward making that 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:00.159 accessible to people who have disabilities. But that puts the 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.920 burden more on the agency than the companies that are 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.520 making the technology, Right Like, unless the federal agency is 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.599 making its own technology, it's outsourcing that. And when it 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.479 outsources it, it may mean that the agency has to 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.320 take a very close look at the different competing products 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.680 that are on the market, and it may very well 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.159 mean that the federal agency will make a choice of 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:30.440 a product not because it was the best cost for 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.280 what they needed to do, but because it fit this 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:38.640 other requirement more than the competitors did. It does create 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.080 an incentive. But this is just a policy that only 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.760 applies to people who work for the federal government. It 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.680 doesn't apply to state governments or local governments, and it 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.960 doesn't apply to consumer products in general. But things are 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:57.080 not dire. There are a lot of companies, major companies 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.520 that are working very hard to make certain that the 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.800 technolog ology they create is accessible to people of all abilities. 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.800 More on those efforts in a bit. One other thing 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.600 I want to mention is that accessible technology is distantly 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:17.000 related to another concept called regionalization. This refers to adapting 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.280 technology so is meaningful and helpful to people in different 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.480 parts of the world. Again, people who speak a different 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.440 language than the developers do, or who live in a 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:31.360 culture that has different values and therefore different needs, different challenges. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.800 Those require special consideration. Technology is not always a one 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.200 size fits all solutions. Sometimes you have to tweak things 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.760 for the end user. And I'll probably do a dedicated 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.560 episode about regionalization in the future because there's a lot 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:50.240 of different aspects to that as well, from software to hardware. 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.320 But let's go back to accessibility. I'd like to quote 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.719 the organization earn E a r N that stands for 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:03.520 employer Assistant and Resource Network on disability inclusion, as they 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.040 lay out in their web page about technological accessibility quote 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.480 when talking about technology, accessible means tools that can be 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.920 used successfully by people with a wide range of abilities 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.520 and disabilities. When technology is accessible, each user is able 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.040 to interact with it in ways that work best for 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:28.400 him or her. Accessible technology is either directly accessible, whereby 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:34.000 it is usable without additional assistive technology a t or 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.880 it is compatible with a system of technology. For example, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.880 a mobile smartphone with a built in screen reader is 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.840 directly accessible, whereas a website that can be navigated effectively 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.800 by people with visual impairments using a screen reader is 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:53.000 a syste of technology compatible. Now, another thing I want 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:57.720 to mention early on is another tool called edge, which 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.680 in North America is a technology assessment tool developed by 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.360 the Urban Libraries Council. The ULC creates a place for 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.600 libraries to share and learn from best practices in numerous 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.120 fields that relate to libraries and communities. And to all 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.840 you librarians out there, thank you. You guys are awesome. 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.720 And hey, a former tech stuff host is among your number. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.960 One of our former tech stuff hosts is a librarian. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.760 So back to edge and to talk about what's important 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:33.720 here for this podcast. The Edge Toolkit includes many different 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.000 benchmarks to guide libraries in making the best use of 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.120 technology in order to help communities, and that includes everything 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.280 from training people to become more tech savvy, to increase 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:50.040 digital literacy, provide access to the Internet, and other valuable 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:56.560 services that are absolutely crucial to interact with society today. So, uh, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.080 it's it's very easy to get left behind if you 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.760 are not of a particular demographic, right. I come from 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:09.040 a very rural part of Georgia. I live in Atlanta now, 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.960 but I come from a very rural community. When I 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.480 was growing up, it was extremely rural, to the point 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.439 where we had cattle farms and chicken farms around us, 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.840 and uh, you know, I was in a little subdivision, 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.000 so it wasn't like I was miles away from everybody, 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:27.640 but a lot of people didn't have access to technology. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.199 And granted, the Internet was not really a big thing 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.359 when I was growing up. I'm old enough to predate 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.720 when the Internet was it was prevalent, but even to 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:44.000 this day, people in those communities don't necessarily have access 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:47.160 on a daily basis to the technology that a lot 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.600 of us take for granted and their local libraries act 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:55.240 as a community center and a source of contact for 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.360 that kind of technology. They can also serve as a 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.960 way for people to become more educated about that technology 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.319 so that they can make meaningful contributions in a world 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:10.160 that is increasingly reliant on that tech. And so libraries 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:14.160 are one of those points where people aren't being left 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.319 behind because they have the access to those libraries. This 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:22.400 is Jonathan on a soapbox saying libraries are really important more. 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.040 It's more than just checking out books, which by the way, 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.520 also really important, But it's more than that anyway. Let's 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.120 get back to the benchmarks. There's a specific one called 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:38.240 benchmark eleven that's about accessibility with technology. The core statement 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.959 for benchmark eleven is libraries ensure participation in digital technology 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.080 for people with disabilities. So to meet that benchmark, that 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:52.400 libraries should in fact also provide access to people who 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.160 have disabilities, provide access of technology to peopleho have disabilities. 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.520 The library must have at least one public terminal has 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.920 assisted of technology incorporated for the visually impaired. It has 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.240 to have a public terminal that is accessible for people 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.600 who have motor and dexterity impronments. It needs to have 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.840 a workstation that can accommodate people who are in a 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.040 wheelchair or other mobility vehicle, that kind of thing, etcetera. 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.560 So it needs to have these points of access for 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.040 people who otherwise would be left out. And I think 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.560 it's valuable to look at the edge tool, not just 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:30.880 to acknowledge how important libraries are and uh and because 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:32.840 me it's clear that I think they are very important, 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.160 but because they lay out goals, they get the conversation 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.959 rolling about making technology accessible to all people. Now, some 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:44.000 areas of tech are ahead of the game compared to others, 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.240 like the world Wide Web. So the Worldwide Web Consortium 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.520 or W three C formed back in Nino with the 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.960 goal to develop standardized protocols for the evolution of the 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.040 Web to make sure that it moved forward in a 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:06.240 way that was uh easily distributed and developed so that 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:10.120 you didn't have a bunch of splintered experiences. They wanted 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.439 something that was going to be interoperable across the entire web. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.960 One of the four domains that covers is the Web 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.240 Accessibility Initiative or w a I, and that has five 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.440 primary purposes to ensure that web tech supports accessibility, to 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.960 develop guidelines for accessibility, to develop tools to evaluate and 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.960 facilitate accessibility, to conduct education and outreach, and finally to 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.080 coordinate with research and development. So as such, the W 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.880 three C has issued guidelines for Web content accessibility to 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:45.559 help ensure that developers make sites and services that are 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.720 in fact accessible for a broad range of people. And 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:54.400 those guidelines are pretty exhaustive. They have sixty five checkpoints 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:59.800 and each checkpoint has an assigned priority between one and three. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.679 A Priority one checkpoint is one that tackles a barrier 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.600 that would make access impossible for one or more groups 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.559 of people, so it identifies something that could potentially make 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:17.720 technology completely inaccessible too an entire group. Priorities two and 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.559 three mark challenges that would make it difficult, but not 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.760 necessarily impossible, for one or more groups to access the 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.560 web content. And this is a big issue UH in general, 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.440 just the idea of accessibility. A two thousand eleven report 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.440 from the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability saw 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:38.400 that people with disabilities make up nineteen of the United 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:44.000 States population. Now that report points out that if people 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:48.000 with disabilities were recognized as a minority group, that would 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.640 actually be the largest minority group in the United States. 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:57.559 It represents a large population of people, and without these 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.960 UH considerations for excess stability, that would be nearly one 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.120 fifth of all citizens of the United States left out 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.760 of being able to access that technology. So that's why 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.920 this is of critical importance. When I come back, I'll 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.520 give you some more examples of some of the types 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.040 of assistive technology and accessible technology that are out there, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.840 But first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.680 For people who have visual impairments, there are a variety 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.240 of assistive technologies and they range from ways to help 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.720 people with limited vision to ways to help people who 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.600 have no site at all. And one of the ones 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:52.160 that is a fairly simple implementation is screen magnification systems, 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.400 and these are digital screen magnification systems. They enlarge text 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:58.680 and graphics on the computer screen make it easier for 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.440 people who have paired vision to read and see things. 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:06.160 So it does act like a magnifying class. Typically, a 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.880 user will move a cursor over the page using keyboard 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.680 strokes or a mouse, and wherever the cursor is, that's 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.840 the area that will increase in size to make it 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.480 easier to see, so you can scan across the page 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.960 as if you're using a magnifying glass and you're reading 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.920 text on a piece of paper. Some systems also will 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.480 include things like a a an option to scroll down 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.520 the page at a predefined rate, so that you don't 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.000 have to just sit there and and babysit the mouse 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.400 and or keyboard and move the cursor manually. It'll move 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.360 automatically at a speed that you've already determined, so that 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.600 you can just read along. Many will also offer a 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.440 contrast adjustment so that the highlighted or magnified text or 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.480 image stands out more dramatically against the background. Here in 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.800 Georgia are electronic voting systems have that kind of capability 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.200 built into them, which is a good thing. But pretty 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:07.080 much everything else about those electronic voting kiosks isn't so great. Uh. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:11.440 They are a very old and vulnerable technology, but that's 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:15.480 a matter for another podcast. The accessibility features of that 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.080 technology are good, so I want to stress that's the 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.040 rest of it that may not be so great. Operating 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.400 systems like Windows, and it's not just Windows, just saying 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.760 Windows does have this have accessibility features that can adjust 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:33.800 font size, resolution, scroll bars, icons, color scheme, and more. 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:38.640 Mac Os has a similar series of options, all designed 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:45.160 to make use of that technology more uh well easier 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:50.200 for people who have visual impairments. Uh. Windows also or 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.600 vision impairments. I guess I should say visual impairments is 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.680 a improper way of saying it, but vision impairments. Windows 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.280 also has a screen magnifier feature built in. It's not 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:01.560 the only U BRING system to do this, but again 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:07.400 it has that. There are also screen reader technologies. Essentially 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:09.600 that gets down to sort of a text to speech 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.720 program that can read out text to a user. I've 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.840 definitely engaged that by accident in the past. Found it 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.720 pretty interesting that it was a integrated feature. Now I 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:21.719 don't need a screen reader, but the fact that it 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.119 was built into the operating system did impress me. It 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.080 meant that the designers were thinking ahead and wanted to 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.199 have that capability to be standard and not something a 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.920 user would need to add on as an option. Apple 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.439 has a feature called voice over. It's frequently cited as 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:41.679 an innovative assistive technology. Voiceover gives auditory descriptions of what 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.520 is on a screen, including all the different on screen 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.600 elements such as on screen controls, and it can work 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:50.920 with apps as well. Now that requires developers to actually 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.119 tag the various elements in their apps so that the 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.800 voiceover function can effectively relay that information to the user. 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.360 So it's kind of like meta information at specific meta 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.399 information for voiceover. So, for example, a play button on 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.639 an app that would initiate a sound would need an 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.639 appropriate tag so that the voiceover system could alert the 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.679 user about the function and relative position of the button. 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.680 Then there are things like refreshable brail displays that provides 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:22.160 access to information on a computer display through brail. Uh. 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:24.080 And this time we're talking about a computer display that's 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:29.119 not necessarily it's it's not a screen. It's typically a 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.600 a flat surface that has little holes through which retractable 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.800 pins rounded pins can extend up and then form characters 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.439 in brail. And a typical brail display can show around 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.920 eighty characters at a time. It's refreshable because the pins 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.240 can fall or rise up and form different characters, and 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.760 they'll do this as you move a cursor around the screen, 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.119 So you can scan over a screen and these characters 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.680 will change under your fingertips and you can read Brail 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.119 that way. The history of Brail, by the way, is 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.280 pretty darn interesting all on its own, so here's a 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.000 quick tangent about the history of Braille. Louis Braill was 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.640 a young man in France born in eighteen o nine 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.320 who suffered a childhood injury at the age of three, 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.399 and it left him blind. He attended school and he 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.320 would listen very carefully to lessons. He was a good student, 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.199 and then went on to attend the Royal Institution for 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.639 Blind Youths in Paris UH and that school owned a 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.000 few books that had raised print on them. That raised 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.560 print was essentially created by stamping pages with copper wire 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.359 that was bent in the shape of letters, so it 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:44.040 was just, you know, the letters of the alphabet UH 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.879 embossed essentially on pieces of paper. Braill heard a story 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.200 about a soldier named Captain Charles Barbier de la Sere. 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.080 He was a captain in the French army who had 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.760 developed a system of writing for soldiers so that they 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.600 could send and read messages even at nighttime without turning 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.240 on any lights, because a light would give away your position, 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:11.320 which in war time is not great. So this system 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:16.280 used raised dots and dashes on paper. You would create 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.320 these raised elements and then by running your finger across 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.560 you could read the message. So Braile decided to adopt 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.639 that method when developing his own system of writing. In 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.280 eighty nine, Louis published the first book written in Brail, 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:31.840 and he would later add some more characters to his 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:36.679 system to incorporate stuff like musical notation and mathematics, and 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.600 a system would be tweaked over the decades that followed. 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.800 It really only began to get widespread adoption well after 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.520 his death in eighteen fifty two. But flash forward to 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:51.600 nineteen seventy and a company called Pop and Meyer and 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.199 a man named Dr Werner Bolt of dortmun University in 0:20:55.200 --> 0:21:00.679 Germany created a refreshable Brail display called Braile X. And 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.840 so it's like Brail with an X at the end. 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.800 It was a stand alone system for information storage and retrieval, 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.359 so it's not like it was a computer peripheral in itself. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.879 Was a system that would allow you to create information 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.639 and store it in Brail, and to retrieve information and 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.159 have it displayed in Brail. When writing on the device, 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:24.600 you would assign a code word to that information, and 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.200 it was essentially a file name, so you could call 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:29.840 up a code word or file name and then retrieve 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.200 the information and read it in brail. It originally used 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.840 an audio cassette data storage system, so would store everything 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.119 on magnetic tape, and then later models would upgrade to 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.359 a floppy disk system. Later still it would include a 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.639 serial port which would allow the user to connect to 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:49.199 the device to other peripherals like a computer system or 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:51.720 a brail emboss or or brail printer, so you could 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.440 actually print your workout on paper. The first refreshable brail 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.280 display for users in the United States was the Versa 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.879 Brail that did not launch till night teen e two, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:06.080 and the National Federation of the Blind released NFB Trands, 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:10.320 which was a brail translation program in nineteen eighty. That 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.760 program could translate text into brail and send it to 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.840 a special brail embosser or brail printer. That original program 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:20.000 sold for hundreds of dollars when it first came out, 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.840 but in nine its utility was considered so important that 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:27.240 the NFB released the software to the public domain. In 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:34.119 Dr Kenneth Yearnigan opened up the International Brail and Technology 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.520 Center for the Blind at the National Federation of the 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:42.600 Blind Headquarters, and that center evaluates assistive technology for the blind, 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.399 so it puts it to the test to make certain 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:48.760 that the technology does in fact help as opposed to 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:53.119 just become a frustration or or an impediment to using technology. 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.400 And as you would expect, this technology found its way 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:59.560 into other foreim factors, including portable devices. In fact, really 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:01.879 early and it found its way into portable devices. In 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:06.639 seven the Brail and Speak became an early forerunner of 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:09.719 the personal digital assistant, and this was all for the blind. 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:13.280 This became the first of a class of devices called 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:17.399 note takers, and it had a speaker and a six 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:22.520 key Brail keyboard, and it was made in Germany, so 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:26.160 it had a data system where it could speak to you. 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:28.680 And because it was made in Germany, the system actually 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:30.800 had a bit of a German accent and it synth 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:32.800 the size speech, which is kind of interesting. I watched 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.000 a video that played some of the audio from one 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:40.080 of these devices. Typing would involve pressing key combinations to 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:43.359 access options and type in letters and I could save 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:46.000 information and bring you back to it later. And this 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:49.440 was all before personal digital assistants would emerge. For cited 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:52.960 users there have been many note takers since that one 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:57.200 way back in There's been some cool pieces of technology 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.600 to incorporate brail displays over the years. One recent one 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:02.600 I've seen that I thought was pretty interesting was the 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:06.679 dot watch, which I think debuted in TV. It's a 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:09.679 smart watch with its own refreshable brail display. So it 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:14.720 looks like a big white watch face with a little 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:18.680 little round circles cut into the watch face which through 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:23.960 which the pens can extend and create the various characters 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:29.280 in brail. The watch thus can can display time, it 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.880 can alert you to messages that can actually spell out messages. 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:36.320 It's it's like a smart watch, and it's pretty nifty 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:38.479 and concept. I have no, well, no idea how well 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:42.119 it performs in the wild. I don't know if it 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:46.280 works as well as the concept UH would have you think, 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:49.800 but I love the idea. I hope it works as 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:53.560 well as the videos suggest it does, because I think 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:57.960 it's super cool to have a brail smart watch. Well, 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:01.359 I have a lot more to talk about with accessibility technology, 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:03.359 but first let's take another quick break to thank our 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:14.920 sponsors for the Heart of Hearing and the Deaf Community. 0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:20.960 Assistive Technology can include things like captions and transcripts. Automatic 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:25.200 systems that generate captions and transcripts do exist. They typically 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:30.399 use speech recognition technology to analyze speech and try to 0:25:30.520 --> 0:25:35.040 create text based on that. They are a variable quality. 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:38.280 I've seen some caption programs that are pretty good, and 0:25:38.280 --> 0:25:40.960 I've seen others that end up telling a story that 0:25:41.000 --> 0:25:42.960 turns out to be very different from the one that's 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:49.600